CHAPTER IV

PLACE-NAMES AND PLACE-LORE

" Our fathers were not fools when they named their hills."
" I daresay not," said I, " nor in many other things which they did, for which
we laugh at them because we do not know the reasons they had for doing them."

(Wild Wales.)

" From glens come they,
Out of caves and sidh-mounds,
And the dead hollows of the hills.
" Bind fast about us the Druids' knot,
The fence of fire,
The cloak of concealment."

(Earth of Gualann.)

THE subject-matter of the present chapter resolves itself, in much the same
way as that of the foregoing chapters, under the three headings of (i.) Place-names,
mostly in the Manx tongue ; (ii.) their meanings in English ; (iii.) the lore,
chiefly of a supernatural kind, ' associated with the places.

The names, in common with those of the wells and the old roads, are for the
most part absent from the maps ; those which do occur are so signified. Some
have been met with in by-ways of print and manuscript; the majority were gathered
in the districts where they are still in use, or, in the case of obsolescent
names, were revived in the memories of the older people. The spelling has been
made to conform with the usual Manx spelling when the words were recognizable
; otherwise they have been written as heard, so nearly as is possible with a
class of names in which pronunciation is often variable. Names which do not
appear on the map are printed in italics ; this will explain what might otherwise
look like a typographical inconsistency. A few of the unmapped names which occur
in Moore's Place-names of the Isle of Man are mentioned (with acknowledgment)
for the sake of comparison, or to indicate their locality. Similar use has been
made of the printed Lord's Composition Book.

A place-name, in that it was born in the mind of a peasant, was cradled in
popular approval, and owes its continued existence to tradition, falls well
within the limits fairly assignable to folk-lore. A small proportion of these
Manx names (e.g., Nikkesen, Caillagh ny Gyoamagh, Lhing y Glashtyn, Lhing Beyyey
Dhone, Trowl-pot, Creg yn Dhorys, Chibbey Yoan Mooiy) are more obviously related
to folk-lore, since they have arisen directly from the legend belonging to the
spot. Some of the saints' names, on the other hand, have produced or attracted
legends, chiefly in the case of the wells dedicated to Patrick and Maughold.
These are detailed in their places, as also is the story which is told to explain
what are now known as St. Patrick's Footsteps, in Rushen. The fancy that the
Clydeside missionary left the impress of his feet in the Manx schist is balanced
by a Scottish fable, which I will quote from Brown's Memorials of Aygyleshire,
page 139

There are also traditional stories in the district of battles and single combats
having taken place. One of them is told of a Manx hero, who, when his followers
were routed, defended himself against a rock, on which it is said he left the
print of his back. The rock is still called Sgeiy-a-mhanannaich. It might be
asked what were Manxmen doing in Otter? But it is a curious coincidence that
the Isle of Man was a place of resort, if not actually possessed, by this Danish
dynasty at this particular time. . . .' And he proceeds to explain the mystery
by means of a recorded Danish invasion of Cowal in 918.

In addition to the insular places which have been
named from the stories belonging to them, there are
a few instances where the names are evidently titles
which have lost their relevant stories, like some of the
items in the list of bardic narratives in the Book of
Leinster. Notwithstanding these many sound reasons
for mingling names and localized traditions in one
section, it might have been better to arrange the
folk-lore among the generally diffused beliefs and
practices to which a future chapter will be devoted.
This method was in fact considered, but the genii
locoyum proved too tenacious of their own. Perhaps,
with the implacable logic of natural forces, they
decided that it was the business of a scrapbook to be
scrappy.

REMARKS ON MANX PLACE-NAMES.

The names just specified are exceptional in their periscopic glimpses of the
unseen ; Manx place-names in the mass are as prosaic as those of any other land
where the name-system is the product of the peasant ethos. (The efforts of colonizing
pioneers have not had a happier result, as the map of the United States reveals.)
Political history is not reflected by them in any marked degree, partly, perhaps,
because outstanding events in Manx history have been few and far apart. Social
history is illustrated here and there, especially that part of it which relates
to methods of apportioning and working the land. Ecclesiastical history shows
up better than any kind, in the names of chapel-sites, cross-sites, holy wells,
and similar relics of religion. But the spirit of the system as a whole is distinctly
practical and utilitarian, treating the land and its sea-coast as a source of
livelihood. The most noticeable departure from literalness is perhaps the tendency
to bestow names derived from the human and animal body. This practice may be
equally common in other Celtic-speaking countries ; it is impossible to speak
certainly without making a strict comparison which would incur more labour than
the result would be worth. Kione, head, is of course ubiquitous in its Gaelic
form in Ireland and Scotland, as is dreem, spine. Beeal, mouth, is used for
an opening, entrance, approach. Gob is now understood as " mouth " also, but
it seems likely that " snout " or "beak" was the sense in which it came to characterize
innumerable projecting rocks both on the coast and inland. Stroin, nose, is
employed more rarely than gob, and its Scandinavian equivalent ness describes
bigger features of the landscape than either of the two Manx words. All these
facial ornaments are common in English nomenclature. Cluggid, gullet, is a term
frequently applied to a small narrow valley containing a stream. The following
words are also found in various degrees of frequency : cleayshyn, ears, braaid,
throat, ughd, breast, three, heart, lhiattee, side, geaylin, shoulder, thoin,
buttocks, maase, thigh, lorg, leg, ghooneen, knees, cass and cosh, foot, glaick,
palm, meeir, fingers, arbyl and famman, tail, maggle, testicle, fuill, blood,
craue, bone, and in one comprehensive instance crackan, skin, rind, if this
is the correct rendering of Towl Crackan, Rushen. More questionable in their
verbal shapes, and therefore in their translations, are malin, brow (Gaelic
molan, but mollee in modern Manx), eearaghyn, kidney-fat, shooil, eye, ooillyn,
elbow. Mollee, however, occurs unmistakably as vollee, and slish, flank, may
also be added.

The English " eye " and " tongue " occur once or
twice, but I do not know that they are translated
words. The entire animal is represented in kiark, hen,
and kellagh, cock, once each at least, and the Calf is
no doubt kalfir, the young of the cow, rather than
kalfi, the calf of the leg. Train, chapter i., page 6,
mentions a " place called by mariners ' the Cow of
the Calf.' " Cabbyl, horse (supposing that to be its
meaning in toponomy), is common on the South coast,
with and without an adjective. The Chickens is
probably an English name, since it masquerades in
Manx as y Chiggin. These words occur singly; the
place is called after an animal. It is in quite a different
spirit that the names, Gaelic or Scandinavian, of wild
or domestic creatures of various sizes and degrees of
nobility, extinct or existent, from deer to maggots, are
compounded with other words in the formation of
place-names.

There seems good reason to believe that few Manx place-names are very old.
To those of Scandinavian origin a time-limit can obviously be assigned, unless
we are to presume a pre - Viking occupation of the Island. The Gaelic names
do not, with two or three possible exceptions, appear to antedate the Scandinavian
period of history, so far as can be judged without external corroboration. If
the characteristic inflexions have been present, they have in virtually every
case fallen away, as in the written and spoken language. Though in a small number
of compounds and precedes a noun, it is impossible to be sure that it is adjectival.
A colourable exception is a croft Arderry in Glen Aldyn with the stress on the
first syllable, also called the Derry. Dhoo precedes in Dollaugh (Dhoo-lough),
Ballaugh parish, and in Douglas. If there are any pre-Celtic names, which I
should say is extremely improbable, they are hidden among those which are so
corrupted that no one can say with any approach to certainty what they stand
for, in the absence of early records by which to identify them. For the Isle
of Man is much less fortunate in this respect than the rest of the Kingdom,
and less fortunate in records of local names than in those of family names.
Most of the instances which do not explain themselves at first sight can only
be dealt with by analogy, and, failing that, by intelligent guesswork or discreet
silence. The latter is the wiser course, we know ; but speculation in such matters
is a harmless folly so long as it is clearly avowed, and not put forth as a
pontifical pronouncement. Occasionally it may hit the mark, or come near enough
to put others in the way of hitting it. As regards the incomprehensible associations
of sounds which occur rarely in the current nomenclature, it is likely that
they are in their origin either Gaelic or Scandinavian names which have suffered
maltreatment, or in plainer English, have been chewed up and half swallowed
by the elisive and metathesizing Manx speakers. In most cases, the English meanings
are quickly ascertainable by anyone acquainted with Manx topographical terms
and their modifications, and willing to consult the chief works on Scottish
and Irish place-names. Otherwise there is seldom much hope of proving a suggested
derivation, for very few insular place-names were recorded before the 16th century,
and then in most cases-probably in all-by men who were unfamiliar with the language.
If any of the Earl of Derby's clerks who compiled his Rent Roll of 1511-13 were
familiar with it, or got the treennames in writing from Manxmen instead of putting
them down as best they could, their spelling cannot have been consistent enough
to help us much, for there was then no system of orthography. Place-names in
earlier documents, such as grants, charters, records of the Abbey's possessions,
and so on, were for the most part evidently written to conform with their sound
in a foreign ear. Even among extant names which seem to bear their meanings
on their faces, there is always the possibility to be reckoned with that a familiar
term has in the course of time been substituted for another which was of less
frequent occurrence. A tendency of balla to absorb words of a similar sound,
such as beeal, beeal-aa, boayl and boailley, is a theoretical example of this
substitution which is occasionally demonstrable.

We know, from such records as are available, that
localities of various extent, from mountains down to
fields, have been renamed, and it is a fair inference
that this has happened repeatedly in some instances.
Norse names replaced Celtic, and some of them were
again replaced by Celtic names, either newly-coined or
pre-Norse names whose use had been kept up by the
natives. Since linguistic influences brought about these
changes, native names have been replaced by other
native names during a period falling within that of
written record ; that is to say, during the last four
centuries. This tendency lasted so long as the Manx
language was spoken. Farm-names, a large proportion
of which consist of personal names added to balla, have
been peculiarly subject to renewal of their second
element, for an obvious reason. Changes in agricultural
methods have made for fresh designations of fields
and larger tracts. Many intacks were added to the
Rent Books after 1703, when circumstances encouraged
the breaking-in of wild land, which has since lapsed
into its former wildness ; it may be presumed that
in some of these extensions of cultivation a name
describing bog, moorland or rough hill-side was
exchanged for another relating to agriculture or
pasture, or containing the name of a tenant. With
the entrance of the Stanleys in the Z5th century
English tenants began to replace Manx tenants, and
the English language obtained a footing ; the natural
and inevitable consequence of this is still in progress.

Attested name-changes from one language to another would fill a chapter. They
have even befallen such primary features, ordinarily tenacious of their names,
as mountains and rivers. The only two mountainnames recorded before quite recent
times, Wardfell and Rozefell, are now South Barrule and Windy Common. The latter
must have had a Celtic name prior to its Scandinavian one, and probably bore
the same Celtic name or a new one between its Scandinavian and its English one.
Snaefell still possesses, on its Eastern side at least, the alternative epithet
of Slieu Mooar ; it may be surmised that this name (if it can fairly be called
a name) was used also for Cronk yn Irree Lhaa, since there is near its foot
an abandoned holding thus entitled. Doubtless Slieu Mooar was a common term
for many extensive hill-sides, just as Awin Mooar was for the greater streams.
The name of one of the largest of these, the Silverburn, must be either a new
coinage or a translation from Manx. The former is the preferable alternative,
for while there is no record or authentic memory of its having been called Awin
Argid, there is in the Abbey-lands Boundaries a hint that it may once have been
known-below Ballasalla, at any rate-as A win Rushen, from the old name of Castletown
: " et descendit . . . in am-nem de Russyn." The stream now called the Santon
Burn is, in the same boundary-delineation as well as later, called the Corna.

The very few Celtic river-names, extant and obsolete, which are not formed
on awin, struan or alt, are probably among the oldest known local names, as
might have been expected. One, the Neb, if it represents, even indirectly, the
Old Irish ab, water, cannot well be antedated by any Gaelic name in the Island,
though another river-name, now appropriated by the town of Douglas, may be as
old. But ' Neb ' is more likely to have been Awin Ab, from its having, in Glen
Mooar, bounded the Kirk German Abbey-lands. The brook Mouro or Mouru of the
Abbey-lands Boundaries, identifiable as the Awin Ruy rising on the Windy Common,
is referred by Professor Munch to the Norse Maura. Possibly the presence of
a Chibber Woirrey at the head of this little stream, just where the boundary
touches it, may bear upon its obscure name. The riuulus qui dicitur Mouro may
at this early point of its course have taken its title from the sacred spring
which issues from its bank, Tobar Muire, retaining the radical initial as in
Tobermory. Ii is unfortunate that we cannot tell on which syllable of Mouru
or Mouro the stress fell, and neither of the derivations just advanced, that
from Norse and that from Gaelic, may account satisfactorily for the final letter.
If it received the stress, the -ro or -ru may be present in the ruy of the present
name ; in that event the remainder of the word is dark to me. There is no indication
in the facsimile of the text that Mouru is a contraction, and we must take the
word as we find it. The name of Glen Callin, Maughold, may embody the forgotten
name of the small stream which runs down it into the Dhoon Glen ; see page 377.
The name of the Dhoon Glen river has likewise passed out of memory, and that
the Manx name of the glen itself has suffered the same fate is implied by the
form of the pr,2sent name. Reagk, in the " Glen Reagh Rushen " of legend (where-ever
it may have been situated), seems better suited to a stream than to a glen,
if it is to be translated . merry,' ' sportive.' There is, in fact, a Struan
Reagh in Leza.yre parish. Crogga, though a genuine rivername, is not older than
a Norse Krok-d "Crooked River " ; the crookedness is now chiefly apparent below
the junction of its two branches. The one running South-East and forming the
parish boundary is doubtless the true Crogga, and passed on its name to a settlement-now
an estate-which in turn named Chibber Crogga and Crogga Glen. The last, like
the Dhoon Glen, Colby Glen, and many another, has lost its earlier name.

Norse river-names, it is not surprising to find, are a
small minority. The larger rivers are termed Awin,
the smaller ones Struan, and some of the steep ones
Alt, with the addition of some simple descriptive
adjective, noun or personal name in the possessive
case ; or they are known by the name of a village, a
farm, or a glen through which they flow. In the latter
type, where a more authentic term has vanished, the
name takes an English shape : the Ballaugh river, the
Ballacowle river, the Glen Aldyn river.

GENERIC TERMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST.

In addition to the common topographical terms slieu, cronk, glion, bayr, magher,
lheeaney, and a score of others, distinguished by qualifying additions, there
are a few which, though occurring repeatedly, are often used by themselves.
Specimens of these may be of interest. The most widely distributed is

(The) Naaie, properly yn Fhaaie, which is found
on virtually every farm. The definition given in
Kelly's Dictionary sufficiently describes it, even
when it occurs in an uncultivated region :-" a green
flat grass-plot, a paddock." On farms it is never
ploughed up, but is kept as pasture, and is usually
adjacent to the house.

The Thoar is said to have been, as the Naaie still
is, a field-name found on almost every farm, but it
is now less common than that. Moore explains it
as ' bleaching-field' ; ' dunged-field ' has, I think
been suggested also, and this might suit some
instances-it would at any rate hold good in Ireland.
But a definition would still be desirable which could
be applied to much larger areas than a field, such
as the farm of Ballathoar (formerly Balnethoar) in
Ballaugh and Glion Thoar in German.

Thalloo Losht, " Burnt Land." I learn from a
friend that "nearly every farm in Lonan had a
field called the Thalloo Losht, into which the cattle
were put on Tynwald Day. Sometimes plaited
bunches of rushes were tied to their horns." Losht
is also found in company with slieu and croak, where
it may be supposed to refer to the burning of the
ground to clear it of bushes, and formerly of witches
at the same time. The use of the term in the lower
lands has been traced to the practice of firing the
surface of the soil before turning it over with the
old push-ploughs.

Fank, the Fanks, though carrying in Scottish
dialect its Gaelic sense of a sheep-pen, is used in
Man for sheep-pasture. It occurs in Bride, in
Lezayre (now part of Ramsey Golf-links), in Malew,
in Rushen, and probably in most of the parishes,
especially those of the Northern plain. In Malew
one instance of it is embodied in the farm-name of
Ballanank, where the land in question is now known
as the Nankies, and is probably the same as the
" Bell Nanckes land " of 17th-century records.

Kassagh or Kessah is a word applied to swampy places on farms, where animals can drink. The instances I have come across
are situated as follows on Ballelby, Patrick ; on Ballafurt, Santon ; about 10o yards North of Kirk Conchan ; and a couple
close together, distinguished as ' brackish ' and ' muddy' respectively, at Spaldrick, Rushen. An Andreas intack called
the Cassa was recorded in 1703, but I do not know whether the name is still extant. Possibly the term is disguised in Loob
ny Kesh, Lonan and Maughold. The Irish ceisach, in Kishaboy, Armagh, Cassagh, Kilkenny, Cornakessagh, Fermanagh, Keshcorran,
Sligo and other instances, is a causeway of wickerwork or roughly woven branches laid across a rivulet or marshy spot.(Joyce,
i., 349-350.) If this is the source of the Manx word the idea of a causeway, which is radical in the Irish, has lapsed.
A farmer once described a kessah to me as a natural watering-place common to two farms and used by the animals of both.
It is true that most if not all of the foregoing Manx examples lie contiguous to farm-boundaries, though in some cases a
wall or fence has been put up which gives one man's land the sole benefit of the spot, so far as it is now utilized. This
present -day Manx definition of a hessah is closely paraphrased by an article in Cormac's Glossary, much of which com pilation
dates to about A.D. 900. " Gelistar, i.e., name for a ford (or pool) of water in which are cattle in heat, and they bite
a mouthful from every division of land which is about it, and a circle of stakes is made around it, if the ford (or pool)
is between neighbours, so that cattle may not eat the cornfields. The grazing which is made in the ford (or pool) is what
is called gelistar. And every neighbour is entitled to a common road to it, if it is without a road." Though the reference
is to grazing, the use of leastar, literally a cup or water-vessel, suggests that ' drinking together ' was the essential
feature of such places.

The City. The Isle of Man contains a number of places to which this term is applied either regularly or occasionally.
(i.) Citten or Sitten, Bride (O.S. map) was "the City" in the Compositions of 1703 and " Citty quarterland " in the Highway
Accounts for 1869 ; the name also occurs in less quotable sources, such as the early directories. It has now been renamed,
I think, Orry's Mount. (ii.) " The City " is still, on the lips of the local people, an alternative name for the village
of Agneash, Lonan. (iii.) On the high road a few yards North of Barrule farm, Malew, there stood till recently a group of
small dwellings known as " the City," and the word still clings to the spot. (iv.) Oliver, Vestigia, page 65, says that
certain old cottages bordering Douglas on the North were called " the ancient city of Sena." The town has now grown round
them, but the name, spelt and pronounced Senna, is still well-known. Formerly it may have extended down to the shore, for
Senna House stands in a line with the section of the old sea-wall in Villiers Lane. It is evident that the name Sena can
have no connexion with shen, old, as has been suggested, but possibly it may have had its origin in the Norse word for the
sand of the shore. There is also (if not yet pulled down) another Senna at the South end of Douglas, which I have heard
designated by its neighbours " the happy city of Senna," but this may very likely owe its name to the better known Senna.
(Its houses, forming a small courtyard in Bigwell Street, were built by an eccentric mason nicknamed " Happy Quirk " ; Happy
also dwelt, when the mood took him, in a cave between Douglas Head and Port Soderick.)

In England " city " is bestowed on spots where it is as incongruous as in these
Manx instances. There are, for example, the City at the South end of Thirlmere,
Cumberland, and the Holy City near Chard, Somerset. In Cornwall " cities " are
fairly plentiful ; some of them are buried under sea-sand, but others, such
as the hamlet of Tredavoe near Newlyn, are still in being. Cornwall's former
population of saints with their cells and the settlements they attracted may
perhaps be held accountable for some of these " cities," as St. Maughold was
for the one at Kirk Maughold mentioned by Jocelin, Vita Patricii. The residents
have in the course of ages allowed the title to lapse, but Peel would fain perpetuate
the civis Sodorensis of medieval bulls and missives. Not behind the saints and
bishops in citizenship, and doubtless before them in point of time, the fairies
had traditionally their city on the top of Skyhill, Lezayre. This is worth mention
as an example of the current peculiar use of the word.

Cooyrt or The Court is a name belonging to a croft
of three fields in Malew, to three separate fields
on the Mull, to a vanished earthwork in German,
and to a small farm in Santon. I cannot say
with certainty that in the last it is not the English
word for a large place of residence. Indeed, the
term may be of English origin entirely, although
naturalized and inflected, since in medieval and
modern Irish nüirt has the incompatible meaning of
a visit or a round of visits, though the original idea
was no doubt a 'circle.' Some of these Manx
' courts,' then, may have been the meeting-places
of petty tribunals like the fodder-juries, which,
though not of importance in themselves, probably
selected a spot hallowed in some way by tradition.

PLACE-NAMES GIVEN FROM THE SEA.

The " marks " which enable fishermen to find certain spots called lheih and aahley (pronounced ' ailya ') at which to shoot
their nets, consist of two or more land-features brought into mutual relationship from the view-point of the boat. Two conspicuous
features, such as a hill-top or a building, may be thus associated, the upper or more distant of which is called the kione
and the other the geaylin-the head and the shoulder ; or two widely -separated points may be manoeuvred into sight at the
same time. It is then known that the boat is in the desired position for beginning operations. This is no doubt almost as
familiar to most people as the fact that, when seen from the sea, the features of the land alter their outline and their
position with regard to each other to a surprising extent. For fishermen there is sometimes an additional source of difficulty
; they may have little or no acquaintance with the interior of that part of the land off which they happen to be working,
yet they must memorize its topography for their guidance in returning to the same spots. Hence a house or a rock or a clump
of trees which forms a unit in a recognized mark must be given a name, which, being used only by a limited and diminishing
class of men for a special purpose, seldom gets into writing or print. For the larger and wellknown features, such as the
top of a mountain, there is no need for this re-naming, and some of the lesser points which lie on or near the coast may
also retain their land-names. Yet it is quite likely that there are among these a few which originated with fishermen, and
hence arises the difficulty of making sense of them from a land point of view. However that may be, it is only among fishermen
that certain names seem to be known. It is this two-sidedness of coastal nomenclature which makes it doubtful whether Cronk
yn Irree Lhaa, " Hill of the Rising Day," was named from the land or from the sea, since the description would be equally
valid from either. But as similar names have been given to places out of sight of the sea, this one was probably first suggested
to a landsman's mind. The common word cabbyl for an upstanding coastal rock, although it has been generally adopted, seems,
from its confinement to the seaboard, to have been given by fishermen. But that does not help us to an explanation why so
many of these rocks should be called " Horse," to which creature they bear no resemblance. Can cabbyl be really the Norse
word gaff, literally a gable or side of a house, but present in "Great Gable mountain, Cumberland ?

This mode of bestowing place-names had nothing to do, primarily, with the old Norse-derived custom of giving " haaf-names
" to creatures and objects whose ordinary names were taboo in a boat. (There are indications, by the way, that that practice
was merely part of a system in vogue among land-dwellers also.) But the habit under notice developed, I think, from a necessity
into a convention somewhat similar to that of the haaf-name. To take a Manx instance, the farmhouse of Creglea, Patrick,
when used as a mark, goes under the style of " Ballakarran," even among men who are perfectly familiar with its proper name,
" because it was once owned by a man called Karran." The hill above it is called Karran's Hill for the same reason, although
there is another and more authentic Karran Hill or Cronk Carran immediately to the South-West of it. But the name of the
next mark, Kintore, seems to be purely a sea-term for " the next houses Northward " as they appear from the sea ; a man
in the habit of using Kintore in his boat was unable to tell me exactly what houses the name referred to, wellacquainted
though he was with the district. Beyond this comes Traie ny Sloat, " Strand of the Salt-pool," which again is not, so far
as I know, the land-name of any beach in the neighbourhood. Moore has it among his Place-names, but this is probably the
example on the coast of Santon which occurs in the Ordnance map. And so the tale goes, right up the Patrick coast. Farther
South, in Rushen, Ball Joe is the name given, in the same spirit, to a point of the coast under Lingague ; Corran Hill stands
for Bradda ; the Kiark -" the Hen," the Kellagh-" the Cock," and Geaylin ny Cholloo-" Shoulder of the Calf," belong to the
Calf and one of its outlying rocks. Thie ny Scarroo is farther East at Searlett ; the Spire is on Langness ; Geaylin y Vaughold
and others are in the North of the island. The Garden is on Ballacarnane in the parish of Michael. The fishing-ground called
" the Wart," two miles North-West of Peel, where a small but fine-flavoured herring used to be caught, was found by bringing
together the crest of Greeba Mountain and a point called by fishermen Balnyhow. Meir ny (yn) Foaw~r, " the Giant's Fingers
" on Lhergy Dhoo, were useful in a similar way. The songs sung at the boat-suppers at the end of the fishing season must
have been full of allusions to marks:

as a whole until that more convenient opportunity.
Concerning the contents of the present chapter a certain
conclusion has been forced upon me: it would be
unwise to say of any spot of ground in the Isle of Man,
either " there has never been a burial here," or " this
spot has never been haunted by ghost, spirit or fairy " ;
and it would be equally unwise to attempt in theory to
dissociate the two predicaments. Waldron a long time
ago flashed a light on the incorporeal half of the subject
when he complained of " the Belief the Natives are
possess'd of, and endeavour to inspire into every body
else, that there is not a Creek or Cranny in this Island,
but what is haunted, either with Fairies or Ghosts."

The substantial unity of doctrine in the world's
Under-faith has been revealed to us by the collectors
and classifiers of the last three or four decades, and
there is no need to insist on the kinship of Manx belief
with the general stock. The superstition of the Island
is not to be divorced from that of the surrounding
lands and waters. Those who have skimmed, however
lightly, the mass of the printed folk-lore of Europe
and the other continents, will have realized that it is
virtually of one texture everywhere, with superficial
modifications under the influence of race, locality, and
condition of society. We must not expect, therefore,
to find in a small island of an inland sea anything which
is independent of the surrounding coasts. But there is
an unfailing fascination in the wizard-like disguises
which a theme (in the musical sense of the word) will
adopt, in the wave-like fluidity, even, with which one
belief or story will lose its identity in another.

Consider, for example, two familiar doctrines, far from
peculiar to the Isle of Man, the exchanging of human
and fairy children, and the abductive propensity of the
water-horse. Of the former I give a personally-acquired
specimen under the heading of Niarbyl, Patrick ; of
the latter under Nikkesen, in Lonan, Glen May in
Patrick, and elsewhere. In Aubrey's Remaines of
Gentilisme, page 30, the two ideas are run together in
this fashion : " In Germany old women tell the like
stories received from their Ancestors, that a Watermonster, called the Nickard, does enter by night the
chamber, where a woman is brought to bed, and
stealeth when they are all sleeping, the new-born child
and supposeth another in its place, which child growing
up is like a monster and commonly dumb. The remedy
whereof that the Mother may get her own child again.
The mother taketh the Supposititium, and whipps it so
long with the rod till the saied monster, the Nickard,
bringes the Mother's own child again and takes to
himself the Supposititium, which they call Wexel balg."

A subtler transformation than this simple union of two ideas is detectable
in comparing one of the Manx Fenoderee stories with a form of invocation reported
from Norfolk ; it may well have been practised in the Island also, though I
have not come across it. The first, thus related by Train, belongs to a field
called Llieeaney &hunt, " Round Meadow," near St. Trinian's. A farmer having
complained that the Fenoderee had not cut his grass close enough, the hairy
one next year left the cutting of it to the farmer, but followed him so closely
and stubbed up the roots so fast that it was with difficulty the man escaped
having his legs cut off by the angry sprite. For several seasons afterwards
no person could be found to mow the meadow, until a fearless soldier from one
of the garrisons undertook the task. He began work in the centre of the field,
and by cutting round as if on the edge of a circle, with one eye on the progress
of his yiarn foldyragh, or scythe, and the other (by some means) on the blade
of the closely following demon, he succeeded in finishing his task unmolested.
That the Fenoderee was a skilled mower is otherwise attested in an old song:

" The scythe that was at him went cutting through all things,
Skinning the meadow right down to the sod."

In Norfolk and the North-Eastern counties the same
germinal idea has assumed a different aspect and is
used for a different purpose. In accordance with a
well-known custom proper to St. Martin's Eve, a
girl desirous of seeing her future husband " went
downstairs into the kitchen. . . . In the centre was
a round table, and around this she was to go at
midnight with hemp-seed, repeating as she scattered
her seed,

" Hemp-seed I sow, hemp-seed I grow,

If you be my true-love come after me and mow.

If the person intended to be invoked was to be the husband, he would appear
behind the sower with a scythe in his hand to mow, and the sower must escape
before the scythe reaches her, else some accident will happen."-(Folk-lore of
the Northern Counties, page 104.) Yet another regrouping of components brings
the Fenoderee (diminished in stature) and his tailoring affairs into association
with the hemp and the midnight hour of the Norfolk charm. " The fenodyree .
. . has in Lincolnshire a cousin . . . The farmer gives him in gratitude for
his services a linen shirt every New Year's Eve; and this went on for years,
until at last the farmer thought a hemp shirt was good enough to give him. When
the clock struck twelve at midnight the manikin raised an angry wail, saying:-

'Harden, harden, hemp!

I will neither grind nor stamp!
Had you given me linen gear,

I would have served you many a year!

' "

(Celtic Folklore, i., 324.)

Here it occurs to me that though I have in the
succeeding pages outlined the appearance and behaviour
of most of the uncanny beings which in former times
attached themselves to particular places, I have perhaps
taken the Fenoderee too much for granted. True, he
has been the subject of personal paragraphs in such of
the earlier writers on the Isle of Man who have deigned
to notice its folk-lore, and Roeder has gathered up a
number of these scattered references in his Notes and
Queries. But there may still be room for further
consideration of one who cut such a prominent figure
in the Island's basic industry. I do not think that
Roeder hit on the source of the Fenoderee's name when
he suggested " the Fians " plus " Godred "-i.e.,

Godred Crovan, King at the end of the izth century,
though I am unable to find a more suitable Scandinavian
name; for Udalric and Oderic were German. It is
worthy of remark, however, that Callow in his Legends
of the Isle of Man gives Fenoderee (in his fairyprince form) the name of Uddereek ; on what ground I
know not-it may admittedly have been a coinage of
the fancy. Within limits, therefore, the spelling of

" Fenoderee " is optional at present. Strictly speaking, we ought to discuss
him in the plural, since there were many of his tribe attached more or less
to various farms. A dozen could easily be enumerated, and these are merely places
where the tradition has survived. In modern times he is thought of as a single
individual who travelled from place to place, and is honoured with the definite
article, in common with the tarrooushtey and all the other monsters not of human
origin as ghosts and spirits were.

Fenoderees, then, were children of the earth, sons of the soil, akin to, though
not wholly the same as, the sons of Adam. They were bigger (or at least broader)
and stronger than men, and rougher in aspect and manners ; their shagginess
indeed was shocking to behold. Like their brethren of Britain, Scandinavia and
Germany, the Brownies, Nisses, Home-spirits and the rest, they wore no clothing
and needed none ; for " the garment that was on them was the hair that grew
out of them," and they generally rejected clothing when it was offered. This
band of territorial auxiliaries was as dark - complexioned as the French army,
and though tradition has not preserved their average cranial index, their intellectual
capacity was inferior to that of normal human beings. Their swollen knee-joints
knocked together (" glioonagh, sphrangagh " in the Song of the Fairies) to such
a degree that their shambling gait was peculiar to themselves-(were they platycnemic
also ?) Yet they could run swiftly if need were, and employ their superhuman
strength with superhuman agility. Hence, though only their outstanding feats
are now remembered, their value to the farmers was incalculable, and their gradual
extinction during the last hundred years or so (as estimated by my informants)
has been accompanied by a marked decline of Manx agriculture. They differed
noticeably from their British and Scandinavian relations in that they did not
enter the houses, or even hang around them unless for food left out at bed-time.
They preferred to make their home in a not too distant wood or glen where they
could enjoy their daylight leisure secure from observation, for they did most
of their work by night. Doubtless, as has been opined, they were an unprogressive
or degenerate type of human being actually inhabiting the Northern countries,
though not necessarily everywhere of one race. They may have been absorbed into
the mass of the population of those lands and so become a legend which invasion
afterwards brought to the Isle of Man. The supernatural element in the Fenoderee
tradition is less substantial and essential than much which has accrued to perfectly
mundane and historical personages in most countries after death, and in some
instances during their lifetime. The Fenoderee's specific endowment was physical
strength, not magical powers, and nobody was ever afraid of him on the latter
score. Even in assuming his total extinction I was inaccurate ; although he
was a Caliban without women-folk, his modified descendants are still to be seen.

A more spiritual or fairy-like being, the Crogan, has now so nearly faded from
the mirror of popular imagination that she has no place of her own, so far as
I have learnt, among the numberless spots which are or once were haunted. She
seems to have been a water-loving lady ; her name, at any rate, relates her
to the North of Ireland Grogan, and perhaps further to the longhaired, cattle-tending
Gruagach of the Highlands, just as the Manx glashlyn is the Highland glaistig.

EXPLANATORY.

References to the years 1510-1513 are of course to Talbot's
translation of the Derby Manorial Roll, some of the inherent value of which
is lost through the lack of editing consequent on posthumous publication. The
Lord's Composition Book of 1703 is bound up with this ; the other Lord's Rent
Books are in manuscript, as is the Parish Register material with the exception
of extracts from the Registers of Ballaugh and Malew published in the Manx
Note-Book. It is regrettable that these records were not printed in their
entirety by the defunct Manx Society which did so much useful publishing work
in the 19th century-some of it less valuable, however, than the Registers would
have been.

The Bishop's Book (Liber Episcopi)
contains in MS. the records of episcopal courts from 1580.

" Gaelic " is used, as previously, for Scottish and
Irish Gaelic in distinction from Manx. " Norse "
refers of course to the Old Norse as preserved by
settlers in Iceland, and thereafter in our Icelandic
dictionaries.

Though with reluctance, I use " superstition " and supernatural " for lack
of happier expressions, and because they carry significations which are generally
understood. " Supernatural " is especially objectionable from a rational point
of view, and might well be replaced by some such term as " supernormal."